It was another day with more history for the Pella boys and girls cross country teams as they blazed across the campus of Iowa State University at the Gilbert Invitational.

The #1 girls cruised to victory with 23 team points and all seven runners breaking the 20-minute 5K barrier. Marissa Ferebee shattered the course record set last week in Ames by well over a minute and also clocked in under 17 minutes for the first time in school history (16:38.1). The time is the fastest ever 5K recorded among an Iowa High School girl in state history. Teammate Elsie Brenneman is now 2nd all-time among high school girls at the ISU course (17:24.1). Between the JV and varsity teams, the Dutch had nine girls drop below 20 minutes, including Ruth Dunham (4th individually, 18:47.4), Raegan Snieder (7th – 19:05.9), Lizzy VandeVoort (19:07.6), Mara Schiebout (19:18.4), and Lizzie Neumann (19:45.1) on varsity.

Pella’s boys continued their chase of top-ranked Gilbert, who won the meet, with the green and white placing second overall. Canaan Dunham broke the 15-minute 5K barrier and ran the fastest cross country race in school history at 14:43, which was also the benchmark at the ISU course. The team average of 16:07 also nabbed the Dutch boys best from last year’s state qualifying meet. Mason Gaulke (16:17.5), Kaiden Browne (16:25.2), Aren Hellbusch (16;33.7), and Jonah Ebersole (16:38.5) were the five scoring Pella athletes.

The Dutch boys and girls cross country teams are off until they return to Central College and the Heartland Invitational on September 21st.